“Real”, an interview with director and soldier Oleh Sentsov
“Real cannot be called a film. And it cannot be called a documentary. It is a document of this war recorded by accident during one battle.”
Ukrainian director and activist Oleh Sentsov tells us more about “Real“, a 90-minute document involuntarily filmed in the trenches, not as a filmmaker but as a soldier, which world-premiered as a Special Screening at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
This “accidental” film came with a preliminary message recorded by the filmmaker, also known for spending five years in jail as a political prisoner in Russia.
“My name is Oleh Sentsov. I am a film director and a soldier from Ukraine. I am currently at home on a short leave, after another rotation in Donbass. What you are about to see, the Real movie, is a documentary, small film. We just call it material, material about the war that was shot about a year ago during a major Ukrainian counteroffensive – unfortunately, an unsuccessful one. The incident occurred during one of the operations, when the infantry of our company was landed at the Real position and was encircled there. I was amongst the commanders who participated in the operation. The Bradley in which I was transported with the second wave of troops was hit. We were forced to take a different position, [in a trench further back] from the Real position. They were connected only by radio. Whilst checking whether my GoPro was still in place, I accidentally turned it on, and recorded a one hour and a half video which mainly shows radio conversations with the guys who are at the positions. This is a movie which has no editing, with no beginning and no end. It may have no meaning, because it does look like a war. The war has very little meaning either. Because war is very complicated, sometimes incomprehensible. Sometimes it is meaningless and always very tragic.“
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